La transición a la política de masas en América Latina

El presente artículo estudia la transición a una política basada en las masas en América Latina como un modo de comenzar a abordar la falta de teorización sobre los casos no europeos de democratización y democracia anteriores a 1974. El mismo ofrece un m

Trazendo de volta a mensuração: fundamentos metodológicos do índice de democracia eleitoral

Resumo A medição dos principais conceitos utilizados no estudo da política tem um grande impacto no nosso conhecimento sobre ela. Afeta a nossa forma de descrever o mundo (e, portanto, as questões que parecem importantes para o estudo) e as proposições causais que consideramos válidas. Ainda mais importante, afeta o tipo de conselho que cientistas políticos podem oferecer sobre os principais temas de política pública e as questões políticas do dia. No entanto, é notável a pouca atenção é dada para a geração de dados e a metodologia de medição. Na verdade, é justo dizer que a visão dominante na ciência política é que a medição é uma tarefa necessária que deve ser rapidamente transcendida ou, se possível completamente ignorada, de modo que as energias dos pesquisadores se concentrem em uma tarefa vista como muito mais importante: o teste de hipóteses causais. A falha em reconhecer a importância da geração de dados e a metodologia da medição, e a propensão a tomar atalhos, tem custos graves. Em poucas palavras, ela leva a ganhos ilusórios em conhecimento, que mais cedo ou mais tarde são questionados. Assim, é hora de que os cientistas políticos desconfiem da tendência de reivindicações prematuras de conhecimento, tão difundida na disciplina, e coloquem mais ênfase na medição de conceitos-chave como uma base de conhecimento, isto é, como uma tarefa que afeta o possibilidade de fornecer análise descritiva e/ou causal sólida e, em última análise, de oferecer conselhos responsáveis. Palavras-chave: metodologia, índice de democracia   Abstract Measurement of the core concepts used in the study of politics has a great impact on our knowledge about politics. It affects the way we describe the world”” and hence the questions that seem important to study””and the causal propositions we consider to be valid. Even more importantly, it affects the kind of advice political scientists offer on the key political and public policy issues of the day. Yet it is remarkable how little attention is given to the generation of data and the methodology of measurement. Indeed, it is fair to say that the mainstream view in political science is that measurement is a necessary task that should be quickly transcended or, if at all possible altogether skipped, so that researchers ’ energies can focus on a task seen as much more important: the testing of causal hypotheses. The failure to acknowledge the importance of data generation and the methodology of measurement, and the propensity to take shortcuts, has severe costs. In a nutshell, it is associated with illusionary gains in knowledge, which sooner or later are questioned. Thus, it is time that political scientists become more suspicious of the tendency toward premature knowledge claims that is so pervasive in the discipline and put more emphasis on the measurement of key concepts as a foundation of knowledge, that is, as a task that affects the possibility of providing sound descriptive and/or causal analysis and, ultimately, of offering responsible advice. Keywords: methodology, democracy inde

Constitutive hippocampal cholesterol loss underlies poor cognition in old rodents

Cognitive decline is one of the many characteristics of aging. Reduced long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) are thought to be responsible for this decline, although the precise mechanisms underlying LTP and LTD dampening in the old remain unclear. We previously showed that aging is accompanied by the loss of cholesterol from the hippocampus, which leads to PI3K/Akt phosphorylation. Given that Akt de-phosphorylation is required for glutamate receptor internalization and LTD, we hypothesized that the decrease in cholesterol in neuronal membranes may contribute to the deficits in LTD typical of aging. Here, we show that cholesterol loss triggers p-Akt accumulation, which in turn perturbs the normal cellular and molecular responses induced by LTD, such as impaired AMPA receptor internalization and its reduced lateral diffusion. Electrophysiology recordings in brain slices of old mice and in anesthetized elderly rats demonstrate that the reduced hippocampal LTD associated with age can be rescued by cholesterol perfusion. Accordingly, cholesterol replenishment in aging animals improves hippocampal-dependent learning and memory in the water maze test.publishedVersionFil: Martín, Mauricio Gerardo. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa; España.Fil: Martín, Mauricio Gerardo. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa; España.Fil: Martín, Mauricio Gerardo. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Center for Human Genetics. VIB Center for the Biology of Disease; Bélgica.Fil: Ahmed, Tariq. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. Laboratory of Biological Psychology; Bélgica.Fil: Korovaichuk, Alejandra. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Cajal. Departamento de Neurobiología Funcional y de Sistemas; España.Fil: Venero, César. Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia. Facultad de Psicología. Departamento de Psicobiología; España.Fil: Menchón, Silvia Adriana. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Center for Human Genetics. VIB Center for the Biology of Disease; Bélgica.Fil: Menchón, Silvia Adriana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Menchón, Silvia Adriana. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Salas, Isabel. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa; España.Fil: Salas, Isabel. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa; España.Fil: Salas, Isabel. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa; España.Fil: Munck, Sebastian. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Center for Human Genetics. VIB Center for the Biology of Disease; Bélgica.Fil: Herreras, Oscar. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Cajal. Departamento de Neurobiología Funcional y de Sistemas; España.Fil: Balschun, Detlef. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. Laboratory of Biological Psychology; Bélgica.Fil: Dotti, Carlos Gerardo. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa; España.Fil: Dotti, Carlos Gerardo. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa; España.Fil: Dotti, Carlos Gerardo. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Center for Human Genetics. VIB Center for the Biology of Disease; Bélgica.Biofísic

Concepts and Measurement in Multimethod Research

This article argues that concept misformation and conceptual stretching undermine efforts to combine qualitative and quantitative methods in multimethod research (MMR). Two related problems result from the mismatch of qualitatively and quantitatively construed concepts. Mechanism muddling occurs when differences in the connotation of qualitatively and quantitatively construed concepts embed different causal properties into conceptual definitions. Conceptual slippage occurs when qualitatively and quantitatively construed concepts use incompatible nominal, ordinal, or radial scales. Instead of gaining leverage from the synthesis of large- and small-N analysis, these problems can push MMR in two diametrically opposed directions, emphasizing one methodological facet at the cost of the other.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Who Commits to the Rule of Law? Constrained Government and Foreign Direct Investment in Postcommunist States

Research linking credible commitments to the rule of law in terms of property rights and contract enforcement is a hallmark of recent efforts to explain economic growth and development. However, many postcommunist states have had difficulty making such commitments and spurring growth. Many argue political polarization prevents states from reforming laws and protecting property rights in some countries whereas single-party governance renders state promises incredible in others. I analyze pooled cross-sectional time-series data for twenty-four postcommunist countries and provide evidence effective constraints among elected officials act as democratic commitment mechanisms rendering government policies credible

“A very orderly retreat”: Democratic transition in East Germany, 1989-90

East Germany's 1989-90 democratisation is among the best known of East European transitions, but does not lend itself to comparative analysis, due to the singular way in which political reform and democratic consolidation were subsumed by Germany's unification process. Yet aspects of East Germany's democratisation have proved amenable to comparative approaches. This article reviews the comparative literature that refers to East Germany, and finds a schism between those who designate East Germany's transition “regime collapse” and others who contend that it exemplifies “transition through extrication”. It inquires into the merits of each position and finds in favour of the latter. Drawing on primary and secondary literature, as well as archival and interview sources, it portrays a communist elite that was, to a large extent, prepared to adapt to changing circumstances and capable of learning from “reference states” such as Poland. Although East Germany was the Soviet state in which the positions of existing elites were most threatened by democratic transition, here too a surprising number succeeded in maintaining their position while filing across the bridge to market society. A concluding section outlines the alchemy through which their bureaucratic power was transmuted into property and influence in the “new Germany”

Rethinking “democratic backsliding” in Central and Eastern Europe – looking beyond Hungary and Poland

This essay introduces contributions to a special issue of East European Politics on “Rethinking democratic backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe”, which seeks to expand the study of democratic regression in CEE beyond the paradigmatic cases of Hungary and Poland. Reviewing these contributions, we identify several directions for research: 1) the need to critique “democratic backsliding”, not simply as a label, but also as an assumed regional trend; 2) a need to better integrate the role of illiberal socio-economic structures such as oligarchical structures or corrupt networks; and 3) a need to (re-)examine the trade-offs between democratic stability and democratic quality. We also note how insights developed researching post-communist regions such as Western Balkans or the post-Soviet space could usefully inform work on CEE backsliding. We conclude by calling for the study of CEE democracy to become more genuinely interdisciplinary, moving beyond some narrowly institutionalist comparative political science assumptions